Kat's travels and adventures

Just a short message from myself to start with today to be of relief to you- I am not affected by the Christchurch incident on March 15. I’m good and alive. But know to continue: In Queenstown I started with strolling along the city and the lake with two other (German) ladies. The lake in Queenstown is quite huge yet beautiful. At first we didn’t came far because the footpath ended despite the bus driver’s note you could walk miles in both directions. No matters, we walked in the opposite direction along the lake then. That was so nice! I booked my further travels with Kiwi Experience in the evening aswell as the boot tour in Milford Sound which was fully booked for the next 5 days in a row but I only had two available, so my only possibilty was the waitlist once again. In the morning I showed up for the bus at 6:30am (zzZ) and at first the driver left me waiting outside, but in the end he had a seat for me on the bus, just not for the other guy hoping for a...

 From Franz-Josef we drove down to Wanaka. Wanaka is a very small city between Franz Josef and Queenstown. It has a very beautiful lake called lake Wanaka, Kiwis are very -creative- sometimes. I spend hours just sitting there, it was very calm and relaxing. The Wanaka A&P show was on the two days when we arrived and left again, our bus driver Tim said we could check it out for the last hour after our arrival, but I’ve seen Franklin A&P show and knew there’s nothing but nothing happening after 3:30 or 4pm latest. That was what some people from the bus told me afterwards aswell, Saturday would have been better but we left in the morning. Looks like it wasn’t meant to be.   A stunning view over Lake Hawea, it was only 4 of us doing the walk while the rest went to Puzzling World Some Rubik's Cubes in Puzzlingworld Katharina

 Franz Josef is the famous glacier on the west coast. Due to the weather it wasn't very cold at ground level, but it was very cloudy and we had 2min of heavy rain, In Franz-Josef I stayed for the recommended two nights. I talked a lot with my roommates and met some friends I keep meeting again and again. We had dinner together and spend a total of about 3 hours just talking and eating xD On Thursday morning I took the shuttle to the Franz Josef walking treks with a lady from my room as her Heli-Hike tour on top of the glacier has been cancelled. The driver recommended us not taking the 5 hour trek we wanted to walk because it was too dangerous in terms of weather, and how silly would it be ignoring an advice from a local?! We did the two 1,5 hour each walks instead, saw the glacier, some Keas (unique to New Zealand’s South Island!!) and a glacier lake. The weather was ok, it didn’t rain a lot and we had the typical for New Zealand 2minutes of very heavy rainfall j...

The city of Westport was the next stop, again famous for surfing and kayaking.  In the evening we made a bonfire and had lots of fun talking and stargazing. What a beautiful starry night sky they have here! I managed to get the shot I was dreaming of since seeing the night sky for the first time months ago!  I was very lucky to be confirmed for the bus out of Westport the morning of our departure. I’ve been on the waitlist for that bus for days, and it wasn’t sure that I’d be on the bus when I show up in the morning, but luckily I was.   We drove to Lake Mahinapua that day, a small place that only Kiwi drives to. The hotel is exclusive for Kiwi guests and didn’t even had a guest kitchen so dinner and breakfast was included. This is the worst stop Kiwi drives you to, the meals were horrible, dinner with meat was some dry,fibrous pork with pork skin and a sauce that tasted like nothing, aswell as tin-vegetables and potatoes. The potatoes were the best par...